Etymology

lead

L1E1A1D2

Today it means: A heavy, pliable, inelastic metal element, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished; both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic number 82. Full definition →

Middle English led ← Old English lēad ← Proto-West Germanic *laud
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lead · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*plewd-“to flow”
  2. Proto-Celtic · derived from*ɸloudom
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*laud“lead”
  4. Old English · inherited fromlēad“lead”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromled
  6. English todaylead

From Middle English led, leed, from Old English lēad (“lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laud (“lead”), possibly borrowed from Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, from Proto-Indo-European *plewd- (“to flow”). Cognate with Scots leid, lede (“lead”), North Frisian lud, luad (“lead”), West Frisian lead (“lead”), Dutch lood (“lead”), Low German Lod (“solder, plummet”), German Lot (“solder, plummet, sounding line”), Swedish lod (“solder, plummet”), Icelandic lóð (“a plumb, weight”), Irish luaidhe (“lead”) Latin plumbum (“lead”), Finnish luoti (“bullet”). Doublet of loth. More at flow. * (graphite in a pencil): Graphite was once believed to be a form of lead; see black lead and plumbago.

lead · verb, noun, adjective2

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*leyt-“to leave, die”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*līþaną“to go”
  3. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*laidijaną“to cause one to go, lead”
  4. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*laidijan
  5. Old English · inherited fromlǣdan“to lead”
  6. Middle English · inherited fromleden
  7. English todaylead

From Middle English leden, from Old English lǣdan (“to lead”), from Proto-West Germanic *laidijan, from Proto-Germanic *laidijaną (“to cause one to go, lead”), causative of Proto-Germanic *līþaną (“to go”), from Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to leave, die”). Cognate with West Frisian liede (“to lead”), Dutch leiden (“to lead”), German leiten (“to lead”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål lede (“to lead”), Norwegian Nynorsk leia (“to lead”), Swedish leda (“to lead”), Faroese and Icelandic leiða (“to lead”). Related to Old English līþan (“to go, travel”).

lead · verb3

Perhaps from a confusion or conflation with read, which has a single spelling for both past and present tenses, but has differing pronunciations in the same way as lead, i.e. the present's vowel is /i/, and the past's is /ɛ/. See also red and redd, the obsolete spellings of read.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*plewd- all →

floatfleetingflatterflit

Middle Englishleden all →

leadenledenlidden

Proto-Germanic*laidijaną all →

leading

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.